If you’ve lived in Austin for more than a year, you might be wondering how we are doing over here at the Town Lake Animal Center with all this rain. Historically, our little 70 year old facility floods when we get these crazy Texas torrential downpours. This happens because the land around our buildings is higher than the kennel buildings that have sunk just a little every decade into the ground. Over the past decade of our inhabiting this facility, we have flooded many times in both minor and major ways. We have worked hard to prevent this issue year after year, and in the past 12 months we have made even more improvements to correct the problem. That is why you haven't heard from us these past weeks -- our drains are actually working better than ever! This has only been possible because of the generosity of donors and the City of Austin Water and Watershed Protection Departments.
But even with these improvements, our drains are still 70 years old, and there is only so much they can take.
What is happening right now with the weather is very much like what we experienced in 2015 right before the Memorial Day Flood. It rained for many days straight and the land was completely saturated. By the time the big downpour happened on Memorial Day, the only thing water could do was travel as runoff. While we were nowhere near the hardest hit, our kennels and buildings flooded and we had to do an emergency evacuation of our pets.
We are hopeful that the rain predicted over the next week stays light, but because it would be foolish to bet against Mother Nature, we are preparing for the worst.
Right now, we need your help to move our dogs to fosters and adopters as fast as possible in an effort to decrease the number of kennels being used. That way any dogs still left at the shelter can be moved to dry kennels, as some kennels may flood before others.
If you are interested in fostering a dog and giving them a dry place to stay out of the rain, please email [email protected] to be connected to the Austin Pets Alive! Dog Foster Team.
If you cannot foster or adopt a pet in need at this time, consider making a donation to support APA!’s future life saving efforts. You can also spread the word to your networks by sharing this blog or this Facebook post.
